How CPA network affiliates are scammed

[Tomcat]

Scam in arbitration​

Absolutely anyone can become a victim of a scammer these days. Fraudulent schemes are developing no worse than the moderation systems of the same FB. There are a huge number of deception schemes themselves. Their number and focus are limited only by the imagination, resourcefulness and imagination of the scammer himself.

Every time a new direction appears on the market, a need arises for new consumables or to purchase something from third parties - a scammer is born in the world. Not only those who work with traffic and launch advertising campaigns can become victims of scams.

Types of scam:

• Arbitrage scam. Any actions of a deceptive nature that cause damage and loss to the person attracting traffic.
• Scam of affiliate networks. Any actions of a deceptive nature that cause damage and loss to the advertiser or affiliate network.

Scam affiliates​

Scam by webmasters is not the only type of fraud in the CPA market. Often, affiliate marketers themselves become victims of unscrupulous sellers who seek to profit from the naivety of newcomers to the field of affiliate marketing. Scammers mainly work through telegram channels, arbitration chats or thematic forums. Let's look at the most common types of scam affiliates.

Consumables​

Classic scam model. Fraudsters offer various types of consumables for sale. After receiving payment, they hide and block the messenger accounts from which the sale was made.

Usually scammers work according to the following scheme:

• Find arbitration chats, channels or forums.
• They set up sending personal messages to subscribers or spam them in the general chat. The first messages are of a boilerplate type and do not involve the inclusion of a real person. The mailing text, as a rule, has a standard form:

“Hello, top seller of consumables at the best prices blah blah blah”

• If the victim “bites”, then he is processed and brought to the payment stage.
• After payment, the scammer disappears and the accounts themselves are blocked.

Courses​

Another equally common method of fraudulent activity on the network. The search for gullible victims is also carried out through thematic chats and arbitration channels, where newcomers to the field seek the support of experienced webmasters and ask questions about the strait that interest them.

Identifying a newcomer is not difficult. After scammers find a user interested in training, they write to him in a personal message with an offer of training. There are several possible outcomes here:

Selling the full version of the course​

As a rule, scammers can provide basic information about the direction absolutely free of charge. Often, training programs contain the most illusory statistics that a future webmaster will be able to achieve after completing the training.

Due to the lack of minimal experience and lack of understanding of the basic principles, beginners cannot appreciate the reality of such valuesand therefore are led into obvious deception. After completing the free part of the course, scammers are asked to pay a certain fee to receive the full version of the training program, which includes a detailed description of flooding schemes and a package of consumables required for launching an advertising campaign.

It is also not uncommon for webmasters, posing as market experts, to sell information that can be found for free.

Sellers recommendation​

Finding a program aimed at a quick start in arbitration is not so difficult. Sometimes scammers copy the training programs of large arbitration teams and traffic arbitrage training centers, passing off the material as original. After sending a link to a free course, the webmaster is offered a choice of several “verified” sellers, the consumables of which are allegedly used by the scammer himself and his non-existent team.

After the user follows the link and pays for consumables, the prices of which can also be taken out of nowhere, the scammer disappears.

Chats​

The most creative, in our opinion, way of deceiving beginners. Scammers create a closed chat in one of the messengers, including everyone who wants to join the top team for traffic flow and become part of the arbitration community.

After a short introductory conversation, everyone is invited to take a test task, based on the results of which future media buyers will be selected and invited to join the team. A classic test task involves a spill in one of the popular traffic sources. All information on launching advertising and passing moderation is attached, but you will have to find consumables yourself.

In some cases, such a spill requires “unique” consumables, which are extremely difficult to find online. After some time, one of the chat participants (a figurehead) shares a link to a market offering those same consumables for purchase. Newcomers follow the link and, in the hope of becoming part of a top team, buy consumables. After the deception is revealed and the first complaints about the scam are received in the conversation, the chat is deleted, and the accounts themselves from which personal correspondence could be conducted are blocked.

Paid offers​

The main goal of beginners seeking to get into the profession is the pursuit of big money in the shortest possible time. Everyone knows that private offers are paid at higher rates and often require individual promotion conditions. Only large media buying teams or webmasters who consistently bring large volumes of high-quality traffic are granted access to such offers.

Scammers offer newcomers access to private offers with high stakes for a nominal fee, supposedly a commission from the affiliate network.

In some cases, scammers, under the guise of affiliate networks, may demand a large sum, which is a guarantee of the seriousness of the webmaster's intentions and proves his ability to work with large volumes. After depositing, the amount goes to the deposit and after some period of traffic verification can be returned back to the webmaster. Of course, no one will return the funds.

There are software programs on the market with paid access to a collection of offers, but they are extremely rare. The owners of such affiliate programs explain this scheme for gaining access as saving time on searching for a suitable offer, arguing for a wide selection of offers and a low entry fee.

Shave from the affiliate network​

Unlike other types of scam, shaving is not carried out by small scammers, but by affiliate networks. Shaving is a deliberate reduction in the actual number of leads attracted by a webmaster. The motives for shaving on the part of affiliate networks are quite clear - saving money. From one saved lead, an affiliate network presenting gambling offers can save up to $500.

Popular shaving methods:

• Decrease in statistics. Reduction of actual spill rates without explanation or demonstration of additional details. For example, indicating registrations but ignoring deposits and vice versa.
• Deliberate reduction of approval. After users have completed the target action, the call center processes the traffic attracted to internal offers. It is their actions that determine whether the order will be confirmed. The webmaster can no longer influence the likelihood of a purchase, and unscrupulous affiliate networks take advantage of this factor and deliberately underestimate the approval rate, freeing themselves from additional payments.
• Using redirects. There are cases when the grid of affiliate networks leads to the fact that the links received by the webmaster on the stream partially leading traffic to third-party offers, bringing benefits to the affiliate and depriving the party involved in attracting users of benefits.
• Fraud. Accusing webmasters of fraud and erroneously sending leads to trash.

Affiliate network scam​

There are not many ways to deceive affiliate networks to receive payments without attracting real traffic. The main one is fraud.

Fraud (from the English Fraud - fraud) is the provision of low-quality traffic under the guise of high-quality traffic.

Fraud is prohibited in absolutely all affiliate networks. If an attempt to obtain a reward fraudulently is detected, the webmaster's account is blocked.

Options for receiving fraudulent traffic will differ depending on the vertical. For example, fraud in the same field or gambling is less common and complex than in gaming. It's all about the intended target actions that are required to receive the reward. Most internal offers require additional confirmation after a call from the call center, and the target action of online casino offers is to make a deposit.

The main volumes of fraud traffic come from bots and users attracted through cheating services.

Bots​

With bot traffic, everything is more or less logical and quite simple. It is mined using special bots. Their functionality includes registration using generated numbers and emails, as well as passing a basic captcha.

Captcha is a special security code for checking a real user. Usually it is a pop-up window or image, the value of which must be entered into the appropriate field.

Anti-fraud systems of many affiliate networks have learned to recognize bot traffic by analyzing user activity after the target action is completed and before the traffic verification period expires. Even the most technically sophisticated bots will not buy goods or make a deposit.

A traffic verification period of 10-14 days allows affiliate network moderators to carefully analyze the received traffic and evaluate the effectiveness and prospects of cooperation with the webmaster. If out of ten thousand leads there are no more than 10 actual sales, then a manual traffic check is carried out. As a result of the check, the fraud is revealed, the traffic is proven to be invalid and payments are cancelled.

Incentivized traffic​

Incentivized traffic refers to users who performed a targeted action due to additional motivation. They themselves were not interested in the product or application and were solely pursuing the goal of making money. The use of motivated traffic is popular when working with offers without conditions for purchasing any goods at the moment.

Motivated traffic performs a targeted action for a reward. The amount of remuneration does not exceed 20% of the payment.

Affiliate networks with weak anti-fraud systems suffer the most, since it is more difficult to recognize motivated traffic than bot traffic. To determine motivated traffic, a holding period of 24 days and detailed analytics at the verification stage are required.